Commercial Gallery Commissions?

I have been approached by a commercial gallery to go out and shoot 12-15 images on the coral reefs in the local area. This gallery specialises in natural landscape photography and the owner shoots all of their above water work (which is truly spectacular). They do all of their own printing which is of very high quality, printing on paper and canvas for prints up to 10 feet long, with large prints selling for up to $2000. The gallery owner stated that he frequently gets asked for photographs of the reefs but he can't dive.

No discussions on commissions have taken place yet, but I am keen to hear what others think is a reasonable commission for the gallery to pay me.

The key points

- I just have to supply the image files

- the gallery handles all of the printing, mounting/framing, sales, marketing etc

Any thoughts would be most welcome.

I have been approached by a commercial gallery to go out and shoot 12-15 images on the coral reefs in the local area. This gallery specialises in natural landscape photography and the owner shoots all of their above water work (which is truly spectacular). They do all of their own printing which is of very high quality, printing on paper and canvas for prints up to 10 feet long, with large prints selling for up to $2000. The gallery owner stated that he frequently gets asked for photographs of the reefs but he can't dive.

 

No discussions on commissions have taken place yet, but I am keen to hear what others think is a reasonable commission for the gallery to pay me.

 

The key points

- I just have to supply the image files

- the gallery handles all of the printing, mounting/framing, sales, marketing etc

 

Any thoughts would be most welcome.

A ballpark for most fine art gallery stuff is 50% of the selling price. You may want to start higher, but if they are bearing the cost of printing etc you will have to factor that into the deal.

yes, i would agree with 50%

Whatever % you end up with just make sure that your agreement includes the right to audit sales, and that the gallery pays the audit fee if discrepcences beyond a certain amount are found. Call me a cynic.